Fancy Bread for Lazy People - Brioche Made Easy

Sometimes you just want to skip all the extra steps and still enjoy the fruits of your labor. Sometimes, the idea of a great breakfast (brunch?) bread is so strong, you want to (have to?) have it now. Or almost now. Brioche is one of those breads that usually take a long time and demand attention to detail. It is also a bread worth the effort if you have the time, and patience. It is a bread with a history. Marie Antoinette is actually supposed to have urged starving Parisians to eat brioche since there was no bread in town at the time. Needless to say her suggestion was not received well by the locals and, as we all know, it did not end well for her either.

That aside, brioche is a very rich bread that falls in between. It is in my opinion clearly a bread, but it is sooo rich, it does have some cake-like qualities.

Here is a 'quick' version of brioche with a chocolate filling. It is delicious covered with butter and served warm. Also, at room temperature. Also, anytime, really. Just enjoy!

Here's What You'll Need:
500g bread flour
250g milk
2 eggs
50g sugar
15g instant yeast
5g salt
1 stick (113g) unsalted butter, diced


also use and egg white mixed with a little water for a 'wash' before baking


Here's What You'll Need to Do:
Mix everything together in your mixer until you get a nice really smooth dough. This can take a while. In my case it took about 15 minutes, scraping down the dough every few minutes from the dough hook in the mixer.

After it's mixed, place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turn to coat (so it won't dry out) then let it rise in a draft-free place until doubled. This might take as much as 2 hours since the large amount of butter will slow the rise. WAIT!!


After rising, de-gas the dough, cut it into about 12 equal pieces, press them fairly flat then add some chocolate chips. 

Roll the dough into a round shape and place on parchment paper to rise, covered for about 45 minutes. If you want, you can instead place the filled dough balls in a lightly greased muffin tin to maintain the round shape. They do come out much prettier that way! Let the dough rise in the tin until they overflow the tops a little to make the traditional 'mushroom' top. 

Pre-heat the oven to 365 F (185 C). Just before placing in the oven, brush gently with a wash of egg white and water. Sprinkle with sesame seed if you want. I think it make them tastier but it's just a matter of taste. Bake for 10 minutes, turn them 180 degrees for even baking, them bake another 10 minutes. 

These rolls are really good. I mean really. They are.